Early AR-15... HELP!!!

7th Fleet

New member
I came across an older gentleman yesterday who was wanting to sell an older preban Rock Island Armory Inc. XM-15. The mag well has Rock Island Armory Inc, XM-15 Cal .223 Serial 0006XX and Sendra Corp, Burlington IL stamped on the left reciever. The barrel has "C MP Chrome lined", stamped on it and appears to be an old Vietnam era barrel, though still in unfired condition. The rifle has the A-1 upper reciver with non adjustable rear sight and an oval forward assist. It has a bird cage flash suppressor, bayonet lug and the rifle appears to be brand new overall. I recieved 13 30 round OK mags and 5 20 round Colt mags, all of which are new. It has a new M-16 bayonet and sheath, a black nylon sling and 65 rounds of GI tracer ammo. It also came with a new cased .22 LR adaptor, with a 10 round magazine. I paid $550.00 for the entire package. I have heard of Rock Island Armory but not in many years. I would like to hear from any of the resident AR-15 buffs on the board who are familar with this type of AR. Can you tell me the current value of this brand new old XM-15 rifle and a little bit about Rock Island Armory. It looks just like a 60's Vietnam era M-16. Any information concerning this nice old gun will be appreciated. Thanks...7th
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You done real good!

The mags alone are worth almost that amount.

How come I never find these deals???

BTW, triangular handguards or round??

Call me a purist (or maybe it was the influence of the old TV show "SWAT" when I was a kid) but an A1 ought to have triangular handguards.

Current value is a toughie. My guess, the whole package including .22 adapter, roughly $2000 market value. Don't know of any collector interest in Rock Island Armory. If it was Colt, I'd say closer to $2400.
 
I didn't know they ever got any rifles into production

7th Fleet,

You just got the deal of the century! :) Depending on where you're located the rifle itself would bring $650.00 on the very low end, to $11-1200.00 on the high end. Colt 20 round mags are bringing $15-30 depending on condition and the local market. The OK GI 30 rounders are bringing about the same as the 20s although I've seen them as low as $11 recently. The bayonet is worth $20 if a GI M7 the original one, or up to $100 if the new M9.

Now on to your rifle. Back in the early '80s Rock Island Armory marketed an AR15 clone. Big display ads in shotgun news. I ordered a CAR-15 type from my local FFL. I had to pay for it in advance and it was never shipped. Supposedly they got into some litigation with Colt and they never produced any rifles. After about 3 months of trying to get my rifle, I had my FFL cancel the order and I bought a Colt SP1 instead. I don't think anyone was making AR15 clones back then. Bushmaster was known as Quality Parts and selling EA receivers (Essential Arms from Powder Springs LA). It's interesting that the receiver is stamped Sendra on the other side.

HTH
Jeff

PS if you want to make your money back let me know LOL ;)
 
Just to clarify a point. Rock Island Armory was a private company, not associated with the government Rock Island Arsenal. The only rifle produced at the latter was the Model 1903.

Jim
 
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